Vermilion Eyes
by Allodoxaphobia
Summary: AU. Some kids have it easy in high school, some have it hard. Some look like they're fine at school, but at home, they hate their lives. Some just hate life in general. More of an explaination in the fic.


Yeah... AU fic. The main focuses are Gaara, Shikamaru, and Sakura. Other's may be in the spot light at times two, but it's mainly going to be those three. This isn't really a fic so much about high school drama. It's more about life at home and school, and how they affect one another. Also, the different ways they handle the problems. So, yeah I guess there will be some high school drama, but only because it's a part of life, it's not going to be a main focus. Am I getting repetitive? Bah.

I lack a beta, so it's probably far from perfect.

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**Title: Vermilion Eyes**

**Author: Allodoxaphobia**

**Chapter 1: Not Morning People**

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He hated the first day of school. Really he did. Maybe it was because all of the new, and mostly annoying, teachers he always got. Maybe even because of the freshmen who are always wandering around looking lost.

Mostly, though, it was because he had to wake up so damn early.

He groaned and rolled over to shut off his alarm. Unable to actually find the button, he settled for pounding on it. He laid still for few minutes before he felt his covers being ripped off him.

"Shikamaru! Get your ass out of bed right now! It's the first day of school! Do you want to be late?" He could hear his mother screech. He resisted the urge to cover his ears, knowing that that would really piss her off.

He sighed and sat up as she stomped out and slammed his door behind her. He really couldn't comprehend why his father had married her. They were way too different.

He got off of his bed and walked over to his drawers. Opening the first drawer he pulled out two shirts, one black and long sleeved, the other a green T-shirt. He closed it, then opened his pants drawer and pulled out a brown pair of pants. He stared at them, they were the ones with about twenty pockets. Shikamaru knew the neither he, nor my mother bought them, but he couldn't remember which one of his friends had bought it for him. He personally didn't known what anyone, other than a clepto, would need with such pants.

Shikamaru walked back over to his bed and set his clothes down, proceeding to undress from his sleep wear. He wasn't going to take another shower, he had already taken one last night. Seeing as the only thing he'd done since then is sleep, he didn't think he was terrible dirty.

He put his pants on, noticing how they were a bit loose, so they hung lower, showing some of his boxers. He didn't feel like going to get another pair, so he shrugged it off, figuring that his shirts would be long enough to hide them anyways. He put on his long sleeved shirt first, then his short sleeved one. It was really something he always did, long-sleeve under short-sleeve. Of course he wore different shirts, though none of them were exactly bright colors.

The lazy teen walked over to his mirror. Something he wouldn't even have in his room if it weren't for his mother. Though he was at times a bit grateful for it. Shikamaru sighed and picked up his brush. His hair was out of it's usual high ponytail, since he had washed it yesterday. He almost allowed himself a smirk. Almost all of his friends were a little annoyed at the fact that he would never take it down for them. He didn't look different… well maybe a little. He did admit that for a guy he had nice hair, though Neji had him beat by a long shot.

He finished brushing his hair and put it up in his usual high pony tail. He then walked over to his bathroom to brush his teeth. As he was brushing them, he noticed a new bottle of hand soap. Kitchen Spice. He sighed and looked back up. He had no idea why his mother kept putting scented hand soap in his bathroom. He had told her many times that he was perfectly find with just using regular bar soap. He spit and rinsed out his mouth, putting his toothbrush back in it's holder.

He walked back out of the bathroom, grabbed his backpack, and left his room.

"Morning, Shikamaru," His dad greeted as Shikamaru came downstairs. The teen waved in response, walking into the kitchen to get some juice.

"You don't need any money for lunch do you?" He heard his mother ask as him poured himself some orange juice.

"No, Chouji always brings lunch for the both me and Gaara," Shikamaru said, taking a drink of his beverage.

"Gaara? That strange boy who never talks? You really make odd friends, Shikamaru," His mother left the kitchen again.

Shikamaru didn't take it as an insult. He knew it wasn't meant to be one. Besides, it was true. All of his friends were odd in some kind of way. Some of them were even made fun of for it. It was pretty obvious why everyone was an ass to Chouji. It was a sad thing, but Chouji had long since accepted it. Too bad none of the people that joked the plump boy realized that he could beat them to a pulp. But he was far too peaceful to do something like that. Shikamaru almost regretted that fact.

He rinsed his cup out and left the kitchen.

"Bye Mom, bye Dad," He called and went to put on his shoes. Vans. Those were the only thing he owned that he actually knew the name of. It was Ino that had made him to get them. Along with everyone else. She happened to notice that a few of them had it, and thought it'd be funny if they all had some. He had held out for a while, but eventually the time came were he had to get a new pair of sneakers. Ino had made him promise to get Vans.

He sighed as he slid them on. They weren't that bad. At least he could put them on without tieing them.

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Gaara groaned as his second alarm clock came on. Cursing himself for putting it there, he felt around for something to throw at it. Grasping a pillow he threw it in the direction he knew the alarm was in, and was satisfied when he heard a crash, and the offending object stop beeping. With a satisfied sigh, he settled back to sleep once more.

Before he could get completely comfortable, his third alarm burst into the room. This one he couldn't throw a pillow at. Well, he could, but that wouldn't make it go away. If anything it'd make it worse.

"Gaara, still in bed I see. Lazy ass. You go from being an insomniac, to sleeping almost all the time," Kankuro tore the covers off the vermilion-haired teen.

Gaara grumbled and cracked open an eye. It was barely light outside.

"Your eyeliner's smeared. You should take it off at night, it's bad for your skin," Kankuro said as he left the room. Gaara wasn't even going to ask why Kankuro knew the affects of make-up staying on all night.

The teen rolled out of his bed, barely avoiding falling to the ground. He clumsily made his way to across his room then stumbled through the hall way to the bathroom. Closing the door behind him, he stripped down from his pajamas. Well, they were actually the cloths he wore yesterday, but once he decided to sleep in them, they became pajamas. He turned on the shower, grabbed his tooth brush, and got in.

Almost as soon as the water touched his skin, he jumped back out, almost tripping and falling. If he wasn't awake before, the scorching water had certainly woken him up now. He reached into the shower and turned down the hot water. Waiting thirty seconds before he got back in.

After fifteen minutes, he was finished washing up and brushing his teeth and turned off the water. He looked around for a towel, then remembered he had forgotten to bring one.

"Kankurou! Could you grab a towel for me?" He called out, hoping his brother would hear. The teen then turned around the grab his clothes off the ground. He heard the door open, and before he could turn around to get the towel, he hear a click and saw a flash. He whipped around to see Kankurou holding a camera a grinning widely.

Gaara's eyes widened in realization as Kankurou ran out of the bathroom, tossing in a clean towel.

"Kankurou I'll fucking kill you!" Gaara yelled as he grabbed the towel, wrapped it around his waist and ran out the bathroom, passing Temari in the hall.

Temari turned and raised an eyebrow. "It's too early to be acting like idiots," She muttered to herself, then continued walking.

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Sakura looked at her pink nails. She really didn't think pink looked good on her nails. It wasn't that she hated pink, if that were the case she would dye her hair. Pink just wasn't something she thought looked good on her nails.

It may have been weird that she didn't like it, yet she painted her nails with it, but her mother wouldn't let her use any other color. She had said that purple was too dark, blue was took bright, and green didn't look good on her. She didn't like any other colors, so she decided to stay with pink. Her mother would flip if she used any other color. As unreasonable as it sounded, Sakura knew it would happened. She remembered what happened when she wore an eye shadow that her mother told her she shouldn't. She didn't hear the end of it for the rest of the day. She knew if she had wore it once more, it would only happen again, so she gave it to Ino.

Now, it would make sense if she just chose not to wear fingernail polish at all, but she has a reason for wearing it. She hated how it uneven it was where the pink and transparence of her nail met. It was weird, she knew, and she was most likely the only one who would notice it, but it still bothered her.

She sighed and left her room. It was the first day of school, she couldn't be late. She had to admit, she was eager to see friends she rarely got to see during the summer.

She descended down the stairs quietly, hoping to get out of the door before her mother noticed. She got to the last step before she stumbled, almost knocking over the coat rack. She had grabbed it before it fell, but it still made a loud banging sound. She mentally cursed as she heard her mother's foot step.

"Sakura dear, are you leaving already?" Her mother asked as she left the kitchen. Sakura resisted the urge to cringe at her mother's overly sweet sounding voice. It wasn't how she really talked, and Sakura would never understand why she insisted on making her voice sound like that.

"Yeah. I want to get there early. You know, avoid the big crowds," Sakura forced a smile as she turned around to face her mother.

"My dear, you're not wearing that are you?" Her mother furrowed her eyebrows as she looked her daughter over.

Great. This is exactly what Sakura wanted to avoid. Her mother critiquing her outfit. She mentally sighed.

Sakura looked down at her outfit. A red blouse, black jeans, and black Vans. She didn't look that bad… She decided she would have to go along with it any ways.

"Yes. You don't like it?" Sakura asked, feigning a worried voice. She didn't want to hear it, but she didn't need her mother to go on a rant about how she should care more about how she dressed.

"Well, it could be better. Though I suppose you don't have enough time to change. Just as long as you change into something better when you get home," Her mother said.

"Why? Are we going somewhere?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"No, dear. Keisuke's coming over tonight for dinner," Her mother laughed. God, Sakura hated her laugh.

"Keisuke?" Sakura questioned.

"Oh, didn't I tell you about him? I met him a week ago. He's simply wonderful. Any ways, you go along now. I'll tell you more about him when you get home from school," Her mother smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

Sakura stared at her retreating back before shaking her head and heading towards the door. Her mother was always bringing home men. Sakura never wanted anything to do with them, but her mother always insisted on her meeting them. There were a few bad memories with them.

Sakura shook her head, erasing the thoughts from her head. She didn't need to be thinking about this on her first day.

She grabbed her bag and headed out the door. She would walk today, maybe that would clear her head.

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Author's Rambling: 

Sooo… how is it? Good? Bad? This is the first of Naruto AU fics I'm going to upload. The other one I have yet to finish the first chapter of. I kind of hit a writer's block right in the middle of me writing it. Heh…

The nail thing may should a bit weird to a few of you… or all of you. It's actually something that bothers me. D: As I was preparing to paint my nails, I thought of it. It's going to… how do I say… incorporate? Later in the story. Here's a hint, think of someone who wears black nail polish.

Anyways, please tell me what you think of the story. I hope I don't have too many mistakes or anything. I lack a beta.

Allodoxaphobia.


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